Pride
A comment by Chitown Kev
It never fails to irritate me–sometimes greatly–when straight people talk and act as if queer people came out of their mother’s womb surrounded with a rainbow aura, dancing to the latest club hit by a DIVA, and whose first word is some variation of heeeeeeeeeyyyyy!
To be sure, some queer people act as if that were the case. (For a time in my late teens and early 20’s, I acted that way.) But even in these more enlightened and “accepting” times of the 21st century, there seems to be far too many people in the closet and far too much rhetoric that’s seriously damaging to the psyche and soul of queer people; often to the point that some queer people do commit suicide or, at the very least, simply exist without an apparent purpose. Sometimes the rhetoric is overt, sometimes it’s not, sometimes it’s a function of memory; that feeling that I’m not quite good enough simply because I’m “queer” and for that reason alone.
Yes, there’s supposedly those over 2,000-year old Old Testament injunctions against queerness, itself. But there’s also those injunctions in both the Old and New Testaments against the sin of pride (e.g. Proverbs 16:18, Mark 7: 20-23) and a nearly unbroken line of anti-pride theology that seems to date back to Paul.
And while warnings about excessive pride pre-date Christianity (as many readings in Greek tragedy will attest), even Aristotle thought that “pride” was a mean, of sorts, between vanity and an overemphasized of humility.
Hard to reach but…accessible and ethical and not “sinful” or hubristic at all.
So…I may not have been born surrounded with a rainbow aura but I’m surrounded with one now.
Madonna (to name one diva) has a new album coming out that’s the best she’s sounded in two decades.
Soooooooooooo….HAPPY PRIDE and heeeeeeeeeyyyyy!!!!!!!…let’s dance!
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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From Georgia to Texas, Republican candidates who have questioned election results in 2020, promoted fraud claims or pushed for stricter voting rules are running for office. The Root: 130 ‘Election Deniers’ Are Running For Office To Control How the South Votes From Now On
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The fight over the 2020 election never truly ended in the American South. And ahead of the 2026 midterms, several Republican candidates questioning the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s win and championing stricter voting laws are seeking offices that could shape how future elections are conducted across the South.
According to research by States United Action, there are over 130 2020 election deniers running for office this year. A closer analysis by Democracy Docket identified several candidates strictly running on voting reform.
The races aren’t as dramatic as your typical presidential election, but voting-rights advocates, election officials and political strategists say the consequences of the midterms could extend far beyond state borders.
“In many cases, we’re seeing new candidates embrace election denial and advance through competitive races,” Kelly Reader, research director at States United Action, told Democracy Docket. “This year’s elections really matter because the candidates who win will play a key role in how elections are run and how [President Donald] Trump’s power is checked.”
The stakes are particularly high in the South, where the majority of Black Americans live. We’ve kept you up to speed with ongoing redistricting efforts following a Supreme Court ruling threatening the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In Georgia, where Trump directly challenged election results, Republican state Rep. Tim Fleming is running for secretary of state, the position responsible for overseeing elections, maintaining voter rolls and certifying results.
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On Tuesday, the federal government joined an existing lawsuit against the city of Evanston, Illinois, over the creation of a reparations program. NewsOne: Trump Administration Claims Illinois’ Anti-Black Housing Discrimination Reparations Program Is Racist
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Because it’s a day of the week that ends with “Y,” the Trump administration is, once again, proving itself to be a white supremacist organization that is dedicated to turning any effort to correct systemic racism against Black people into imaginary systemic racism against white people.
n 2024, we reported on a group of white and fragile right-wingers who filed a lawsuit against the city of Evanston, Illinois, over the creation of the U.S.’s first government-funded reparations program for Black Americans, which was implemented not over slavery, but far more recent anti-Black housing discrimination, which, by the way, President Donald Trump should know plenty about. On Tuesday, the federal government joined the existing lawsuit, asking a judge to halt payouts for the reparations program, which have already begun.
From the Associated Press:
The program, launched in Evanston, Illinois in 2021, is the first and only one of its kind in the U.S., allotting $20 million to Black residents — their direct descendants — who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 and suffered housing discrimination because of city ordinances, policies or practices. Residents, regardless of race, who experienced discrimination due to the city’s policies or practices after 1969 also qualified.
The city has already distributed over $7 million — using revenue from a local tax on legal marijuana sales — to hundreds of people in $25,000 increments to be used for home repairs, down payments on property, and interest or late penalties on property in the city.
The U.S. Department of Justice called the program “racially discriminatory” in a court filing Tuesday, saying that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it allotted different benefits on the basis of race.
And therein lies the true Caucasian conundrum.
As AP mentioned, the program is available to anyone of any race who has experienced, or is a descendant of those who experienced, housing discrimination between 1919 and 1969. White Americans have never experienced race-based housing discrimination anytime or anywhere in U.S. history. Not in Evanston. Not anywhere else in Illinois. Not anywhere else in America. Not in 1919. Not in 1969. Not in 2024. Not in 2026. For a white person to be eligible for the fund, they would have to have been discriminated against or come from a family that has a history of being racially oppressed. So, the question for white people is this: Would you go back in time and put several generations of your family line through centuries of cruel, racist, structurally debilitating, systemic oppression — just so you can be eligible for bare-minimum restitution in the modern day?
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The violent fascist riots in Belfast reveal the future that the trillionaire really wants. We need an international movement to constrain him. The New Republic: Elon Musk’s Race War Just Took Darker Turn—Time for a Global Response
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If you were on the verge of becoming the first trillionaire in human history, with the press breathlessly reporting on your every move, that would probably be your focus. Yet in the days before SpaceX’s initial public offering vaulted Musk into the 13-digit wealth club, the tech mogul’s mind was elsewhere—a white man in Belfast had been viciously stabbed by a Sudanese immigrant, and it provided Musk an opening.
In numerous social media postings, Musk highlighted the crime in starkly racist terms. Several nights of violent anti-immigrant pogroms orchestrated by fascist mobs followed. It was a telling confluence of events: Musk’s extraordinary wealth is fueled by investors’ bedazzlement at his techno-utopian schemes. But the Belfast conflagration revealed the other side of his future vision: his belief that the white populations of the world must violently subjugate the nonwhite enemy in what he sees as a multicontinental, Armageddon-like Total War for global racial supremacy.
As the bedlam raged in Belfast after the stabbing—resulting in far-right rioters torching cars, buses, and even the homes of immigrants—Musk egged it on. Using X—the platform he acquired precisely for moments like these—he posted locations for groups of rioters to congregate. He elevated vile, overtly fascist and white-supremacist exhortations. When one far-right British politician called for the prosecution of officials who “placed dangerous third world savages in our communities,” Musk replied: “This is the way.”
These developments graphically illustrate the future that Musk truly envisions. They also demonstrate that Musk will use his stratospheric wealth and influence to incite untold levels of global fascist violence going forward. Which leads to an unavoidable conclusion: At some point, friends of liberal democracy throughout the advanced democracies—including future liberal governments—will simply have to come together in a concerted and deliberate way to constrain Musk and all he’s unleashing. Whenever Democrats take back power in the United States, this must be squarely on the agenda.
In a very real sense, the fires in Belfast illuminate the emerging outlines of that coming struggle. Musk’s involvement in British politics has tracked with his growing fantasies about global race war. Last fall, he compared nonwhite immigrants in the U.K. to orcs—the dangerous, inhuman monsters from Lord of the Rings—and enthusiastically endorsed a tweet claiming: “If White men become a minority, we will be slaughtered.” As Musk has watched the anti-immigrant far right grow in the U.K., he has gravitated toward extreme versions of “great replacement theory,” ones that posit a far-reaching plot to violently eliminate whites or breed them out of existence entirely.
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BLD PWR’s Juneteenth Weekend was so much more than a simple celebration. It was a testament to what can happen when you choose community over status. NewsOne: Black Joy And Black Power Are The Same Thing – BLD PWR Proved It In Houston This Juneteenth Weekend
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Houston didn’t just celebrate Juneteenth this year – it embodied a celebration that would have made our ancestors proud. Over the course of the weekend at The SLAB, BLD PWR turned the birthplace of Juneteenth into a living room for Black Joy, Black Pride and Black Power. From film screenings and thoughtful panels to Keke Palmer shutting the room down and karaoke that felt like the family reunion, the weekend proved one thing: in Houston, freedom isn’t just something to remember; it’s something personified.
Founded by actor, activist and Houston native Kendrick Sampson, BLD PWR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that focuses on engaging pop culture, education, and intersectional activism. The organization’s Juneteenth celebration took place in his own backyard of Houston, just 50 miles north of Galveston – where Union troops arrived on June 19, 1865, to deliver the news of emancipation, two years after enslaved Americans were already freed. Houston has carried that legacy ever since through celebrations like BLD PWR’s Juneteenth Weekend, which was so much more than an event. Culture intertwined with the joy and camaraderie Black people deserve.
When I arrived at the beautiful venue called The Slab, I couldn’t help but notice the dozen or so giant chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, juxtaposed against clean white walls. BLD PWR pillows were scattered among the couches surrounding a low center stage – a space that felt, even before the first speaker took the podium, like a safe haven for Black joy, Black creativity, and Black success. They called it the “Living Room Experience,” which was fitting because it felt like home. The evening opened with a screening of Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, a film laced with metaphors about workers’ rights, creative freedom, and self-expression, which fit the vibe perfectly.
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